The flipper coils have new sleeves. The plungers have been smoothed with very fine grit, like 1500. Need new linkages- they aren’t the same size! Once I have that cleared up, I’ll see if I think it needs new coils. Also, will check and see if it’s on high tap. The slingshots are crazy strong.

I put the yellow dot (medium power) flipper coils from PBR in, and it made a huge difference!

Highly recommended...

Whoops: Orange dot are medium strength. Yellow dot are the strongest. Orange dot coils are what I have in my game, and they are perfect.

I'm almost done with my Pop-A-Card table restoration and I have a couple of minor questions:

- I am not hearing the chime on every switch and bumper. Should everything give off some pattern of the chime sounds? If not, would someone mind letting me know what isn't supposed to chime when contacted?

- what is the rule of thumb for bumper or rollover switch gapping? I could use a spark plug feeler gauge unless there is a less specific measurement device (credit card, business card etc). Additionally, what are relay stacks usually gapped at?

Thank you!!!

Bumper switches, like sling shots, set as sensitive as you like.

Pop bumpers, set as close as you can without table vibrations setting them off.

Switches on coils, you want the plunger to retract as far as possible before breaking contact. The more the plunger is in the stronger the magnetic field.

On relays, just be sure they close enough or open enough to make good contact & function.

On make break switches be sure the break switch is open before the make switch closes.

You’ll read that a properly adjusted switch moves the other contact when closing and the motion is supposed to keep the contacts clean.

Hogwash. It may ensure good contact, but I just cleaned them on my drop a card and they were very dirty.

I set mine on high tap. New plungers & linkages on the flippers. Very happy with it.

Do these flippers look to be set correctly?

They do a real good job of moving the ball at an angle towards the top sides, but it’s real hard to get the ball to go straight up. Is that how the game is supposed to play?

Also, you can’t hardly trap the ball. Is that right for this game?

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The look pretty good. I do the bottom side parallel to the lower metal wicker. I usually measure the spacing on the front and rear with the rubbers off to get them as parallel as possible. Also, I changed the shafts on mine, because the old ones were so badly indexed (indented) that i couldn't do fine alignments.

Looks pretty standard to me. But hey it’s your machine - if you want to make center shots easier, you can adjust the angle to your liking, up a
Smidge perhaps.

I don’t necessarily want to make it easier, I want it to play like in the arcade in the 70s.

I like how the design has the ball going in weird angles. I got the machine because it was a favorite of my brother’s. I hadn’t played it much back then, so I thought I’d check.

i think that you are good then, it looks pretty close

I've had several Pop/Drop a cards, and the flippers have all been aligned exactly like yours.

I just set the out lanes to liberal.

Still very hard. Thinking of going to yellow dots.

Is there a trick to adjusting the drop targets? New targets. They either take a solid hit to drop or fall back down upon reset. Having trouble finding the happy medium.

Not centered. I’ll take a look at the assembly.

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I was thinking it’s the tension of the switches.

Will take a look this weekend.

When you replaced them, did you disassemble and clean the mech? Also, did you replace or at least clean the coil sleeve? The coil may not be able to lift them all the way if there is dirt or grime on the shafts or in the coil sleeve (people sometimes try and spray lube to loosen them up which always ends in tears). I ran all of my components (except the coil itself) through the ultrasonic cleaner when I replaced the banks and have had no issues.

From your pic, you could be a little tight to the front of the playfield, which may be inhibiting the targets from staying up on the rise. There is a very slight amount of adjustment movement on the mounting screws that are on the underside of the playfield for the assembly, but it shouldn't take much.